Production Defence Ministry Consultative Committee Meets

Indian Ministry of Defence, Defence Minister Shri A K Antony has called for aggressive Indigenisation in Defence Production. Addressing the Defence Ministry Consultative Committee Meeting on Defence Shipyards in Delhi today, he said this will not only include Defence PSUs but also the private sector. 
 
Shri Antony said to achieve this both public and private sector must invest more on research and development. The Minister said the stress on Indigenisation is required because of delay in supplies from foreign vendors which sometimes happens due to change in policy. He said sometimes we find the quality of imported equipment is also not up to the mark. While advocating more and more cooperation between public and private sector Defence industry, the Minister cautioned that this will not be done at the cost of Defence PSUs. 
 
The Defence Minister also directed the Defence Ministry officials to explore the possibility of setting up an institution to cater to the design needs of the Armed Forces related to ships, submarines, aircraft and other equipment. He said “I must also state that the design capabilities of Indian Defence Shipyards leave much to be desired. One of the major challenges, facing the shipyards is the lack of design capabilities.” Shri Antony said, shipyards and Navy should take immediate measures to upgrade their design house or tie up with well known global majors. 
 
The Defence Minister said the Defence shipyards constitute an important element of India’s indigenous Defence production capabilities. The Minister informed the members that the total value of production of the three Defence shipyards during the year 2005-06 was Rs. 1430.33 crore, which rose to Rs 2557.51 in 2006-07. He said unlike other DPSUs, the Defence shipyard share a very close relationship with their customer i.e. Indian Navy. 
 
The Defence Minister said the Navy has prepared a maritime perspective plan that outlines the total requirement of ships, submarines, etc. up to the year 2022. Shri Antony also informed the members that the three shipyards i.e. Mazagon Dock Limited, Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers Ltd and Goa Shipyard Ltd are Miniratna category I and have shown consistent profits during the last three years. 
 
He said today the ‘order-book’ position of the three shipyards is comfortable. “The shipyards have embarked on major modernization projects and their focus is on reducing build times and keeping abreast of various technological developments in shipbuilding. Thus, in future a holistic approach on shipbuilding is proposed to be followed by the shipyards”, the Minister added. 
 
The members while appreciating the performance of the three shipyards made various suggestions to further improve their working. Many members were of the view that the shipyards should seriously look into the problem of time and cost overrun. A member suggested that instead of going for outsourcing the shipyard should try to develop required capabilities, indigenously. A suggestion was also made to send the engineers and technicians from these shipyards to abroad for higher training instead of going for outsourcing. A member suggested the need for benchmarking the products for shipyards so that it could be compared with the best in the world. Another member suggested that salary structure of technicians in the shipyards to prevent them from quitting the job in large numbers. Another member suggested that Government should explore the possibility for securing order for these shipyards from abroad. 
 
Earlier, Shri PK Rastogi Addl Secretary Defence Production gave a detailed power point presentation about the three shipyards. 
 
Minister of State for Defence Production Rao Inderjit Singh, Defence Secretary Shri Shekhar Dutt, Secretary Defence Production Shri K P Singh, Scientific Advisor to Defence Minister Shri M Natrajan, Director General Acquisition Shri S Banerjee, and various senior civil and military officials also attended the meeting.